Secret Letter Detailing Late Medieval Britain Fully Decoded - Medievalists.net A secret medieval letter detailing late medieval England and Scotland has been decoded by a team of historians.

Secret Letter Detailing Late Medieval Britain Fully Decoded www.medievalists.net/2026/04/secr... #history #medieval #England #Scotland

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Tom Toro.

LE FANU, Joseph Sheridan. The House by the Church-Yard. In three volumes. Second edition. Tinsley, Brothers. The odd spot. Contemp. half black sheep, marbled boards, raised bands gilt, brown morocco labels; a bit rubbed & worn but still a nice copy. A warm 4pp signed letter from Le Fanu, dated 5 September 1863, from his 18 Merrion Square address. Le Fanu writes to a Mr Macauley: I hope you will accept these volumes I am so happy to send to the old & kind friend whom I remember long ago among those happy scenes which I have chosen for the story... I have to thank you too, again, for the details you were so kind as to give me about the Royal Irish Artillery & which make me feel as if I had seen that fine old corps in its shorts, leggings, cocked hat ruffles pulling their guns up the Chapleizod road. A lovely copy evidently presented to someone influential from Le Fanu's "happy early days, who seems to have helped with some of the finer historical points of this iconic novel. Following the lukewarm reception of Torlogh O'Brien, Le Fanu stopped writing novels for over a decade, in favour of publishing short stories in periodicals, not revisiting the genre until the early 1860s when he published this, one of his most acclaimed works. M.R. James described The House by the Churchyard as 'a book which seems to bring together in a concentrated form all of Le Fanu's best qualities as a story-teller. The author's final Irish-based novel and his last foray into historical fiction, it is set in Chapelizod, the land of his youth. The tale is comprised of interconnected crimes brought to light following the discovery of a human skull with evidence of terrible injuries disappearances, murder, deception, and betrayal weave through years in the small village community. The cast of characters is sprawling, each with their own connections, neuroses, and motivations, and these diverging plots and myriad roles allow Le Fanu to explore different aspects

A Le Fanu on sale at Jarndyce

Nice to see Roisin Conaty on the poster.

#marqueemonday #filmsky

Yearly post of Gertrude Michael singing ‘Sweet Marijuana’ in Murder at the Vanities (1934). Happy 4/20!

Gil Duran tweet: TLDR: Fascism in response to Palantir's long fascists screed on X.

"Your Account is Suspended" Message on X

The CEO of Palantir posted a fascist manifesto on X.

I pointed out that it was fascist—which resulted in a permanent suspension from X (my second time!).

So, when you hear the tweeters complaining that BlueSky is intolerant, remember why many of us came here in the first place.

Watching the trailer again took me back to that long ago time when we were battling fascists and worrying about machines causing Armageddon. Changed days.

Saw this one at the cinema in a very odd double bill with Breaking Glass.

Marvel Studios Surprisingly Leaving Key Location After Many Years For Major Reasons The Fantastic Four was largely filmed in UK.

"Marvel Studios Moves Film Production from Georgia to UK's Pinewood Studios"

"Reasons for the move include cheaper labor and studios not being required to subsidize workers’ medical expenses, as the U.K. has universal healthcare."

A letter to act on.

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity Great swathes of rock music since the nineteen-sixties would never have existed, we're sometimes told, were it not for the recordings of Robert Johnson. Certainly the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Cla...

Holy SHIT someone found the test pressing of Robert Johnson's Cross Road Blues and it is clear as a PIN www.openculture.com/2026/04/reco...

Step aside orange cats

Photo of the South of Scotland regional ballot paper for the Scottish election on 7th May 2026. Added text identifies the "INDEPENDENT GREEN VOICE" as "NOT the Green Party" and "SCOTTISH GREEN PARTY" as "The actual Green Party".

Anyone who received their postal ballot today in the South of Scotland region, please be aware that "Independent Green Voice", which appears second on the list on the peach regional ballot paper, is NOT the Scottish Green Party. This is in fact a deliberate vote spoiling attempt by right-wingers.

Are the voters who "passionately dislike this country and society"

a) The same ones who spend their days posting about our capital city becoming a lawless hellscape run by Islamist rape gangs, or

b) young women who oppose racism and join protests in favour of climate action?

Not once in the 80s, 90s or 00s do I recall a politician urging the public to embrace email, mobile phones, texting, two factor authentication, online banking, air fryers, or to replace all their cassette collection with a CD collection.

So forgive me if I smell a rat.

Amazon MGM Studios on Instagram: "Just like the old one. But newer. Spaceballs: The New One is coming only to theaters April 23, 2027." 54K likes, 618 comments - amazonmgmstudios on April 15, 2026: "Just like the old one. But newer. Spaceballs: The New One is coming only to theaters April 23, 2027.".

www.instagram.com/reel/DXLg-WT...

Blu ray cover image for the film showing an illustration of the bottom half of a man running away with a couple of bags of money, while a woman in a green dress looks on.

CASH ON DEMAND (Quentin Lawrence, 1961). What a wonderful little film this is! As others have mentioned it’s a spin on A CHRISTMAS CAROL masquerading as a heist movie. Tense, clever & surprisingly affecting, with a terrific suite of performances from the three leads. (1/3) #FilmSky #1961Club

Yeah, I saw it late one night on Scottish Television in the days before teleshopping took up a big chunk of the overnight schedule.

After all these years I still remember the thrill that one time the camera moved.

Probably the worst film ever to have been shown on UK linear television. Either that or Superbeast.

The quality of the restorations and, crucially, the contextualising material gave me an appreciation for Tod I did not have before. Yes, he’s wildly over the top; he knew it, his audiences expected it. It’s part parody, part celebration of material that was old when he was performing it. Tremendous!

Lest we forget … this from Nigel Farage q little while back

Phantom of the Opera, the musical.

I’m afraid I fell asleep 6 times in the cinema in Edinburgh. Each time at the exact same point of the exact same film (not my choice of viewing).

Orbán’s pay cheques: Reform candidate fuelled by profits from Russian oil The Reform candidate at this month’s byelection claims he wants to put Britain first, but is he still on the payroll of Viktor Orbán’s far-right propaganda unit?

These people call themselves patriots. Almost invariably, they turn out to be stooges of foreign powers. goodlawproject.org/orbans-pay-c...

If you can overlook how tatty it is, it's surprising how many interesting ideas are being explored, at least compared to your run-of-the-mill grade-z schlock.

But you’re translating “Mini” as “little” when it is a reference to miniskirts. It’s not “Little Girls”, it’s “Mini-Girls”.

The point of the university as a concept is that it's been here for a thousand years and meant to be here another thousand. Turning education over to producing what the market needed five years ago is never going to work well.

Magyar won with an emphasis on corruption and the rule of law. Good lessons. It wasn't just "we will improve the economy". It was "these people are stealing from you and we will put them in jail."